Needless to say these ramblings are personal reflections and do not in any way represent official policy of the Fédération Protestante de France, my employer, nor of the churches I'm a minister of, the United Reformed Church and the Eglise Réformée de France.

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2008 was the international year of languages, the international year of the potato and the year for the protection of the frog. 2009 is the international year of reconciliaiton, the international year of astronomy, the Calvin year, the St Paul year and no doubt much more besides. Enjoy it all.2010 was the UN year of biodiversity and the year of the 100th anniversary of the Edinburgh mission conference2011 is the international year of forests - protect the trees and plant some folks!

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Each year after Christmas BBC Radio 4's Today Programme opens up its programme to a series of Guest editors. Lying in bed slurping tea and not thinking about going to work it really has been pure indulgence to listen to some of these programmes.On Monday Zadie Smithgave the programme both a very literary feel and a sense of her searching in a very plural way for meaning in life. This longer piece of reportage from Liberia into what living in a "failed state" is like was powerful and challenging.I also really enjoyed the interview with Alain de Botton about the School of Life and its attempts to ink art, psychology, philosophy and literature - followed by a "sermon" on punctuality.Today's guest editor was Jarvis Cocker and included a very eclectic and engaged set of pieces - a great interview with rugby star Johnny Wilkinson about quantum physics and the meaning of life; two items looked at the links between climate change and the current financial crisis; there's an alternative Zen Buddhist thought for the day and the weather forecast from Greenland! Yesterday guest editor Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connorinterviewed prime minister Gordon Brown.All of these programmes are real food for the brain between news bulletins and a wonderful respite from yet another set up falsely contentious argument between two supposedly opposing views. Just makes me realise how much I miss by having to go to work, spending the day at home listeing to the radio and drinking tea should be my New Year's resolution!

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About Me

Jane

My name is Jane Stranz. I was born and brought up in Britain and am an ordained minister of the United Reformed Church, a small non-conformist church. For over 10 years I worked as a parish minister in the Eglise Réformée de France in Dunkerque, Chambéry and Ferney-Voltaire. Fom July 2002 to October 2011 I led the language service of the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Currently I'm working on a two year mission on ecumenical relations, inter-religious dialogue and inter-cultural ministry with the Fédération Protestante de France based in Paris. It's going to be exciting and a steep learning curve. I'm married to Stephen Brown a journalist, researcher and theologian who works at Gobethics.net. Over the next two years we'll see how we manage a commuting marriage between Paris and Ferney Voltaire. Since 1999 I've been living with multiple sclerosis, sounds rather noble but really means I just live in denial and inject interferon b three times a week and count myself very lucky to live in a country with a great health care system.